no sump - water polishing

[saltank]

How many out there who don't have sumps polish their water and how often and how do you do it?

I have a 46gal bf, no sump. Over time the detritus accumulates to the point where I blow it off the rocks and hook up a small penguin bio wheel filter for a few hours, perhaps overnight. Haven't done it in several months. I'm not sure if I do it often enough or run the filter long enough. This time when I blew the rocks off there was one heck of a detritus storm; although the filter feeders, tube worms and I'm sure schleronepthea loved it.

Thanks for the input.

 

[JC2005]

I blow off my rocks at least once a week. Also stir my sand monthly to minimize detritus buildup.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the 46 BF as well, but I rigged a 10 gallon sump under it. I still blow off the rocks every other day or so. I don't mess with the sand though. Before I had the sump I did the ecxact same thing using a penguin for a few hours a week. I had no issues with it, but I wanted more water volume, hence the sump. I tie a filter sock off to my overflow drain and fill the sock with filter floss and then blow it off now.

 

[Meloco14]

I have a 55 with no sump. I use a penguin hob filter like you, without the bio wheel. I will run it when there the water is cloudy from anything being stirred up, or if it has been a while between water changes and I don't have time to do a change anytime soon. I used to run it 24/7 with Renew instead of carbon. I haven't noticed any change in the water quality since I changed to only running occasionally. I wouldn't worry about it either way. If you leave it running for more than a day it's not going to do any damage to your tank. If you don't run it very often and you notice detritus build up, either siphon it during a water change, or stir it up and put that filter on.